OpenAI’s release of its newest model, GPT 5.6, will reportedly not be like its previous releases. Instead of distributing it to the public, the company plans to share it only with a select group of close associates because the Trump administration ordered it to. reports Information.
In a meeting this week, CEO Sam Altman reportedly told staff that the government would “approve access on a client-by-client basis” during a preview period. Altman reportedly added that if the limited release goes well, OpenAI hopes to follow up with a broader, general release “a couple of weeks later.”
In other words, the Trump administration appears to be pressuring OpenAI to do what Anthropic is already doing voluntarily: keep its most powerful AI models secret.
According to The Information, OpenAI’s new model is not only being reviewed by the administration, but its staff also “worked closely” with the government on the upcoming launch. The agencies that reportedly requested limited disclosure were the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The Trump administration, which originally positioned itself as a “hands-off” approach to AI, has pushed in recent months for federal oversight of the new models. Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order order certain artificial intelligence companies to voluntarily submit new models to the government for testing and evaluation before publishing them publicly.
Earlier this year, Anthropic sparked major controversy when it announced that its new cybernetic frontier model, Claude Mythos, just be released to a small group of partners through a program called Project Glasswing. Anthropic argued that its model was simply too powerful and, in the wrong hands, could cause more harm than good. Since then, observers have debated whether Anthropic’s rhetoric is a mere marketing gimmick or a legitimate attempt to prevent a powerful model from being misused. The answer may be somewhere in between.
Cybercriminals have used automated tools to a long timeBut in the age of generative AI, they now have more digital ammunition than ever. LLMs have proven to be experts in writing malwareand some may even execute full ransomware attacks autonomously.
The specific concern with cutting-edge cyber tools like Mythos is that they are apparently capable of identifying and exploiting software vulnerabilities at speeds that no human analyst could match. Since many software systems contain hidden bugs that act as entry points into enterprise networks, this obviously poses an obvious and significant problem for any organization running a complex software infrastructure. That said, since these models remain closed to the public, it is difficult to know to what extent they pose a threat.
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